Bernard Boutet de Monvel (1881–1949) may have decorated his Paris house with 19th-century antiques, but in the 1930s and '40s no portraitist was considered more au courant. “He was, in America, the most important painter of the day, the painter of millionaires,” art historian Stéphane-Jacques Addade says, “like Andy Warhol would be in the '70s.”

Precisely which Vanderbilts and Du Ponts sat for Boutet de Monvel will be revealed at Sotheby's Paris on April 5 and 6, when 341 fascinating lots from the artist's Directoire hôtel particulier in the city's 7th arrondissement are put up for auction. Nearly 70 years after the so-called master of the elegant perished in a plane crash, his grandchildren have emptied the home. Among the offerings are pieces by Boutet de Monvel's father, Maurice, a once popular but now largely overlooked children's-book illustrator. “Though the auction is a good opportunity to rediscover Maurice,” Pascale Pavageau of Sotheby's 19th-century paintings department observes, “all the masterpieces are by Bernard.”

The latter's specialty was photorealistic likenesses of society swells, frequently depicted in profile à la Renaissance portraiture and painted from photographs that were transferred to canvas using the grid method. Many of the works were composed with the help of compasses, slide rules, and triangles, and the penciled marks peek through the whisper-thin pigment like mathematical formulae. “He was a Precisionist and created superb paintings of ocean liners and skyscrapers,” says Addade, who consulted on the sale and wrote the just-released monograph Bernard Boutet de Monvel (Flammarion, $135). “But nobody wanted to see that in America—everybody wanted his portraits.”

Boutet de Monvel's personal chic—a fellow soldier marveled at how the artist customized his World War I army uniform with dramatic Napoleonic-style gaiters—is on full view as well. Included in the deaccessioned furnishings are neo-Grecian dining chairs reportedly designed by the artist and a hexagonal dining table faced with mirror. Estimates range from around $110 for a 1920s maquette of a bedroom to more than $500,000 for Boutet de Monvel's copy of his spectacular 1933 portrayal of the young maharajah of Indore.

Lot 15

Passionate about North African culture, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, who was then a wartime bombardier, traveled to Fez, Morocco, in 1918. There he painted a portrait of a woman draped in a striped blanket, based on a photograph he had taken. This later copy of Femme Debout, Fez is estimated to bring $88,000 to $132,000.

Lot 20

Boutet de Monvel earned much of his contemporary fame for his photorealistic society portraits. The chic Duchesse de Brissac, née armaments heiress Marie-Zélie Schneider, sat for the artist in 1945 at his Paris home wearing a silk dress and emeralds and leaning against a lacquered cabinet. The work’s estimate is $16,500 to $21,900.

Lot 25

One of Boutet de Monvel’s most famous works, a 1932 self-portrait shows him smartly attired and seated in a window of the Ritz hotel in Paris, overlooking Place Vendôme. The estimate is $219,000 to $319,000.

Lot 26

Among the contents of Boutet de Monvel’s house in Paris was a 1920s magnetic clock by Cartier fashioned in the shape of a fountain. The silver-and-marble clock’s hand is a turtle—appropriately enough a symbol of longevity. The piece is expected to sell for $43,800 to $66,000.

Lot 31

Boutet de Monvel’s only child, Sylvie, was a frequent subject, shown in this 1944 portrait in an alcove bed at the family’s country house, playing with Champagne, her terrier. The estimate is $11,000 to $16,500.

Lot 49

The young American socialite Maud “Momo” Pershing, daughter-in-law of the famous general, was painted by Boutet de Monvel in 1938. She is shown here in profile, as the artist was fascinated with Renaissance portraiture. The estimate is $4,400 to $6,600.

Lot 52

The most famous of Boutet de Monvel’s portraits depicts the young maharajah of Indore, who was a noted collector, patron of the arts, and modern-architecture aficionado. Around the monarch’s neck hang two magnificent diamonds known as the Pears of Indore. This circa-1934 copy of the 1933 original is expected to bring $329,000 to $550,000.

Lot 77

For his own use in the 1920s, Boutet de Monvel designed a dining table with columnar wrought-iron legs ornamented with gilt-bronze tassels. Later, after moving to another house, he had the table reduced to its present size. The estimate is $5,500 to $7,700.

Lot 87

Boutet de Monvel and his Chilean wife, Delfina, had an affection for Victorian furniture, which had become popular again in the 1920s. This selection of papier-mâche chairs, painted with flowers and encrusted with mother of pearl, is expected to sell for $2,200 to $3,300.

Lot 97

Exhibited in New York City in 1927, this painting of zinnias in an opaline-glass vase shows Boutet de Monvel’s use of a compass in the penciled lines around the blossoms. The work is priced at $4,400 to $6,600.

Lot 101

Lot 107

This 19th-century clock, after a model by Jean-André Reiche, stood on the mantel in Boutet de Monvel’s Paris library. Boutet de Monvel scholar Stéphane-Jacques Addade believes that the clock’s imagery, a woman playing with a dog, inspired the artist’s 1944 portrait (Lot 31) of his daughter, Sylvie. Estimate: $1,110 to $1,650.

Lot 127

Painted around 1930 and once displayed in Delfina Boutet de Monvel’s boudoir, this flower painting incorporates the artist’s studio windows, as seen reflected in the glass vase. The estimate is $6,600 to $8,800.

Lot 242

Eighteen sketches for society portraits are included in this lot, with subjects such as New York beauty Mona Williams, Chicago tastemakers Lucy Linn and Bobsy Goodspeed, and globetrotting heiress Millicent Rogers, whose mother, Mary Benjamin Rogers, was Boutet de Monvel’s lover. The sketches are estimated to sell for $1,100 to $1,650.

FOLLOW US

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 1/2/2014) and Privacy Policy (effective 1/2/2014). Architectural Digest may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Your California Privacy Rights (effective 1/2/2014). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Condé Nast.